Rayon 3

Site specific performance. Original work for La Bibliothèque publique d’information du Centre Pompidou, Nuit Blanche, Paris, 2010. length: continuous 2-hour loop.

Artistic design and performance : Siegfried Canto, Magali Desbazeille – Cie ASAP

Performance :
Viviana Moin, Alexandre Théry

with the librarians : Aurélie Arnaud, Mélanie Archambaud, Isabelle Bastian-Dupleix, Valérie Bouissou, Laure Bourgeaux, Sylvie Colley, Francine Figuières, Marie-Hélène Gatto, Catherine Goeffroy, Manuel Gusset, Anne Jay, Emmanuèle Payen, Florence Verdeille.

Between the monthly destruction and replacement of 1200 books and the up-coming digitalization of their content, what is the future of libraries in the 21st century? What are we looking for, besides information?

Description

As if they were in a factory, 13 librarians work, cutting up used books with a saw, blending them in a mixer, recycling them by turning them into waffles, sculpting them into origami books or reconstructing them by sewing them with a sewing machine, a sort of do-it-yourself hypertext.
Two performers, Viviana Moin and Alexandre Théry, show you how the library has set up a system that enables it to create artists for a low price: when plugged directly into the books, the subjects integrate the knowledge in the books and become good artists.
Using a video projector, Magali Desbazeille orchestrates a choir of four readers. Passages are read from Pa sage a taba by Phil Marso, Le bruissement de la langue by Roland Barthes, La littérature à l’estomac by Julien Gracq, Projet de loi interdisant la lecture aux femmes, by Sylvain Maréchal.

Extracts of texts heard in voiceover and live:

– Weeding: the process of weeding out and renewing the books of a library collection.
– Blend 350 pages with 12,843 letters, add capitals and periods, set aside. Cook over low heat.
– Read like a fan, on settings 1,2,3. Read like a sewing machine, I assemble pieces, I compose, I recompose… it’s a sort of manual hypertext… to develop hypotheses, hypertheses and theses.

Technical direction: Yann Philippe with BPI production control

Accessories : Alexandra Epée, Nana de March

Managing producer :Made In Productions

Thanks to:
IRCAM for lending equipement
The teams from the Bibliothèque Publique d’Information